1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of molecular biology and virology, and in particular, to the development of gene delivery vehicles. Also disclosed are improved rAAV vector compositions useful in expressing a variety of nucleic acid segments, including those encoding therapeutic proteins polypeptides, peptides, antisense oligonucleotides, and ribozyme constructs, in various gene therapy regimens. Methods are also provided for preparing and using these modified rAAV-based vector constructs in a variety of viral-based gene therapies, and in particular, treatment and prevention of human diseases using conventional gene therapy approaches. The invention also provides rAAV-based vector delivery systems which may be used to assess the relative efficiency and infectivity of a variety of AAV particles having mutations in one or more tyrosine residues of viral capsid proteins.
2. Description of Related Art
Major advances in the field of gene therapy have been achieved by using viruses to deliver therapeutic genetic material. The adeno-associated virus (AAV) has attracted considerable attention as a highly effective viral vector for gene therapy due to its low immunogenicity and ability to effectively transduce non-dividing cells. AAV has been shown to infect a variety of cell and tissue types, and significant progress has been made over the last decade to adapt this viral system for use in human gene therapy.
In its normal “wild type” form, recombinant AAV (rAAV) DNA is packaged into the viral capsid as a single stranded molecule about 4600 nucleotides (nt) in length. Following infection of the cell by the virus, the molecular machinery of the cell converts the single DNA strand into a double-stranded form. Only the double-stranded DNA form is useful to the polypeptides of the cell that transcribe the contained gene or genes into RNA.
AAV has many properties that favor its use as a gene delivery vehicle: 1) the wild type virus is not associated with any pathologic human condition; 2) the recombinant form does not contain native viral coding sequences; and 3) persistent transgenic expression has been observed in many applications.
The transduction efficiency of recombinant adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV) vectors varies greatly in different cells and tissues in vitro and in vivo. Systematic studies have been performed to elucidate the fundamental steps in the life cycle of AAV. For example, it has been documented that a cellular protein, FKBP52, phosphorylated at tyrosine residues by epidermal growth factor receptor protein tyrosine kinase (EGFR-PTK), inhibits AAV second-strand DNA synthesis and consequently, transgene expression in vitro24,25 as well as in vivo.19,27,28 It has also been demonstrated that EGFR-PTK signaling modulates the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway-mediated intracellular trafficking as well as FKBP52-mediated second-strand DNA synthesis of AAV vectors. In those studies, inhibition of EGFR-PTK signaling led to decreased ubiquitination of AAV capsid proteins, which in turn, facilitated nuclear transport by limiting proteasome-mediated degradation of AAV vectors, implicating EGFR-PTK-mediated phosphorylation of tyrosine residues on AAV capsids.